To get everyone up to speed: openly-gay Real O'Neals star Noah Galvin gave a shockingly candid interview to Vulture last week that saw him take aim at several prominent Hollywood figures. Most notable among them was X-Men director Bryan Singer, whom Galvin claimed “likes to invite little boys over to his pool and diddle them in the f***ing dark of night” — a seeming allusion to allegations by two adult men in 2014 that the director raped them when they were teenagers (both cases were ultimately withdrawn by the accusers). Hoo boy.

While the quote in question was later deleted by Vulture — reportedly under pressure from Singer's lawyers — and Galvin released a statement of apology, the controversy springing from the interview reportedly caused such a commotion at ABC that the network threatened to pull the low-rated series despite having given it a last-minute renewal in May. From The Hollywood Reporter:

Sources with knowledge of the events say ABC was blindsided by the interview, which was set up by Galvin's personal publicist, Maria Candida, as part of an Emmy push for the young star. (She declined comment.) Galvin quickly apologized for his “brazen and hurtful comments” on Twitter, but how all of this bad press affects the low-rated bubble series – which, after an “abusive” waiting period (Galvin's word), was renewed by the network May 12 – remains to be seen. As the controversy raged, the specter of a reduced episode order arose at ABC, according to one source. An executive producer who had spent four years getting the series on the air was “begging the network not to take action,” says this source. (Reps for ABC declined comment on the situation.)

And this was not the first such incident involving the actor's behavior. Insiders say Galvin – a New York native who had only a couple of small acting credits before landing the starring role on Real O'Neals, which is based on sex columnist Dan Savage's childhood – has been warned multiple times about matters of “ego and entitlement.” One show source says the set likely will be awkward when the cast returns to film season two later this summer: “He caused a grade-A shit show. ABC screamed at him all afternoon.”

It's no big surprise that Galvin's comments erupted into such a “grade-A s*** show,” to quote the THR story. Whenever a celebrity, particularly a relative newcomer like Galvin, makes inflammatory remarks about a powerful figure like Singer, things are bound to go south very fast, and in this case, things got just about as bad as they could possibly get. Call it a cautionary tale for any young star who dares not to know his/her place in the Hollywood hierarchy.